I'm not entirely sure about the idea of using this as a testing ground for a ton of young players. We have a new coach trying to reshape the team and here is a perfect opportunity to call in whoever he wants and to get this team on the same page and playing well. Certainly, a few of the top younger players should get a chance here, but I wouldn't be at all bothered if we used the full squad in these games with maybe 2-3 younger guys on the field at a time. We're not much more than a year out from the World Cup. To me, working with guys most likely to be on the plane would be much more useful for building this team than running out a bunch of guys with only a slim chance of being a part of the squad much less getting real minutes, especially when you have a new coach coming in midstream with only a few opportunities to work with the full squad.
CCV is not even the youth prospect with a 3 letter abbreviation that should be most likely to get invited to the Gold Cup. That is EPB. He can play cdm effectively, which we need. We don't need straight cb's. We have a surplus of them. As a player not proven above the youth level and who is also going to be playing in the u-20 WC he should be behind the likes of Hedges, Miazga, Zimmerman, Opara, Besler, Spector, EPB, etc. A lot of things should need to change between now and then for him to even be considered. We don't need to take Klinsmann-esque flyers when we're this behind on realistic integration. To wit, that should be far and away the priority here. We can quibble about some individuals in so far as how to execute that plan, but anybody not on board with that and suggesting this should be an a-team competition while other rivals play their b's on the road I'm very leery of. It's like they don't want to see how wrong and wasteful Klinsmann obviously was. The results and integration stats really should speak for themselves. But there's nothing like seeing guys like Villafana, Lletget, and Nagbe prove what we were always saying. You don't want to see more of that, a year ahead of the World Cup when we have 6 competitive but relatively unimportant (not debatable, in the grand scheme when there are a few competitions per cycle more valuable) games to evaluate players, and when we have a major depth issue that rears its ugly head whenever we have a little attrition? It's somehow more important to build chemistry and organization with a group of players that's overall significantly worse than the alternative when the entire pool is mined, and when many of them wouldn't be motivated for a comp like this? Like I said, I'm very leery of people who make these types of assertions. "I am fine with the point that the US squad is more limited by the player pool than the coach. The crying and moaning about how Klinsmann is ruining the team are to me quite over the top." - nobody
And all the running out inexperienced 23 year olds in the world isn't about to change that. If you'll allow me to add to my quote.
The most realistic scenario where either CCV or EPB make the Gold Cup is if either aren't fit enough for the start of the U20's (the tournament where CCV was our best player 2 years ago). The WCQ best 23 does not equal the WC best 23. Generally this GC should be about looking at who makes the latter not the former. Based on what Bruce has said if we come out with at least 2 or 3 points from our next two matches we are not going to have to use the GC as WCQ summer camp. Updated: GK: Hamid, Horvath, ??? CB: Zimmerman, Miazga, Orozco, Birnbaum RB: Chandler, Lichaj LB: Villafana DM: McCarty, Jones CM: Acosta, Roldan AM: Hyndman W: Zardes, Arriola, Gooch FW: Wood, Morris, Agudelo MF/FW: ???, ??? So far Roldan is the only uncapped player who is likely for this roster. 3rd GK: not a glamorous gig, maybe Rimando fills in. MF/FW: Lots of open questions. Manneh has disappeared and Perez hasn't become a first team player, jumping over the U20 level. Williams and Morales are CM options. Ream is a CB/LB option but Orozco is the utility defender and maybe Spector takes that. Morrow and Garza are playing well at LB. Maybe Feilhaber and Kljestan push for a chance to move up with the A team. AJ could be an option, especially with 2 up top. Maybe Nagbe or Johnson come in from the first team.
The prospect of seeing Acosta and Hyndman in the same midfield intrigues me. Hamid will probably be injured by the time the GC rolls around.
It's hard to know what approach we will take this Gold Cup. We have a new coach, and the qualifying schedule is a little different this year than last cycle which could afford more overlap in squads. I doubt Arena brings the full A-team, but he very well might bring a more experienced squad. Even if we do decide to not bring most of our A-squad, OP's roster is too young, featuring a bunch of players who should be with the U20s or just aren't performing high enough. Aside from winning, I would have a few objectives this Gold Cup: 1. Give more experience to guys who are on the A-squad but don't have a ton of caps. Guys like Villafana, Acosta, Nagbe, McCarty, Arriola, Zimmerman and Morris are players who Arena had on his qualifying roster, but all have under 15 caps. Give them a more central role this Gold Cup and see if they can challenge to be part of the XI...or on the other side maybe will be replaced in the 23 by other players. 2. Bring back some guys who have been on the fringe the past few years. Feilhaber, Lichaj, Agudelo, Green, Spector, Williams, Morales, Corona and some others might merit a look. I'd be more excited to see the first few names on that list than the last few. Figuring out who has played their way back into contention can be difficult and is always changing based on club play. For instance, I wouldn't have had Spector on this list a couple of months ago but he's killing it for Orlando. 3. Kick the tires of some young guys performing well. Miazga and Hyndman each have a pair of caps and both are reportedly doing well on loan. Roldan is playing great for Seattle. I was disappointed Rosenberry was cut from the January camp squad; he might be my backup to Lichaj (and get a group stage game) for the Gold Cup. Hopefully some other young players excel in MLS or break through in Europe over the next month and a half and can sneak onto the preliminary roster. 4. Give some clarity to the goal keeper situation. Our pecking order last cycle was pretty clear: Howard, Guzan, Rimando. Afterwards I assumed Guzan would be the new #1 and that we'd need younger options to emerge for the #2 and #3 position. But Guzan's career has stalled and Howard has returned to the #1 role. Part of me wants to give this tournament to Guzan to really reincorporate him onto the senior side ,though it'll probably be better to let him integrate with Atlanta. Rimando has lost a step, so I hope this tournament at the very least can help us identify a 3rd option. Hamid, Bingham, Robles, Horvath, Bendik, Steffen, Melia...hopefully someone seizes the reins.
As much as we want to see fresh faces at the Gold Cup, I don't think it's so simple. I think most of the Old Guard still has reason to at least be interested in playing the Gold Cup: Dempsey - last won a Gold Cup in 2007; if his goal is to surpass Donovan, then he probably sees winning a 3rd Gold Cup and replicating Donovan's 2013 as part of the plan. Jones - he's making up for lost time in his US career and has never won a trophy for the US or in his club career. Bradley - last won the Gold Cup in 2007. Cameron - never played a Gold Cup and hasn't won a club trophy in his entire career. Altidore - hasn't won a trophy for the US, and injury has plagued him in international tournaments since 2011. Howard/Guzan - both want to keep that #1 GK spot; both won in 2007, but Guzan has never started for a US team that has won a trophy. Arena will have to be ruthless, especially if CONCACAF sets the squad size at 23 players only. If 23 is the squad limit, then I would only consider taking 2-3 of these players.
Most of those guys are old (Jones, Dempsey, Howard) or prone to injuries (Cameron, Altidore). I doubt Arena would want to tax them with a tournament during what is already a taxing year full of qualifiers. But I guess we shall see.
Vexco and Berbatov will not be pleased with this review of Hyndman http://americansoccernow.com/articles/hyndman-wood-williams-suffer-losses-in-key-games .While the Texan has enjoyed a great second half of the season on loan at Rangers, he offered little against Celtic which seemed to have a defensive strategy oriented on containing the American. Hyndman has thrived on being one of the more technical players in the league but Celtic defended him with physicality. Hyndman was frequently muscled off the ball and struggled to win 50-50 challenges.
Ream looking solid. Arena would be smart to bring him to Gold Cup. A little write up here. Anybody see him play recently? http://americansoccernow.com/articles/hyndman-wood-williams-suffer-losses-in-key-games "There’ss a very realistic chance that Tim Ream could be a Premier League defender next season and that would vastly improve his standing in the eyes of Bruce Arena."
It's almost like when a team focused on just taking him away, his team couldn't do anything to get them out of that strategy. I also don't think 1 game really matters.
Of course that's not what actually happened. All that happened on Sunday was that he came up against a team with a competent midfield. Fact of the matter is he's struggled to make much of an impact anytime he's played competition any better than the League 2 level dross that makes up 75% of the SPL...
I was responding to what was said in the quote. You play who's in front of you. I have less issue with him being bad against Celtic than some, it seems. His teammates are generally bad so I'm not sure what's expected.
All I want from this tournament is Christian Pulisic watching it from a couch in Pennsylvania with his feet up. Or maybe missing it to go to movies with his friends.
Depends on who we call up. If we're totally experimental, then leave CP et. al. out. Otherwise, I wouldn't mind CP getting more experience against CONCACAF and a possible US/Mexico Final that hopefully washes out the bad taste from the last meeting. He will always be "new" to CONCACAF physicality until he plays against the region a lot. Better to expose him inside friendly confines, and on fields that are without potholes.
U.S. Soccer has selected Pratt & Whitney Stadium to host the USA’s Gold Cup tune-up on Saturday, July 1 against Ghana. The match in East Hartford, Conn., is set for 4:45 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on ESPN, UniMas and UDN (with a pregame show on UniMas and UDN starting at 4 p.m. ET). Fans can also follow the game live on Twitter at @ussoccer and @ussoccer_esp, and Facebook.
Not exactly young, but I'd like to see Justin Morrow at least in camp. Mainly because he plays left back, and I'm hoping he's good enough to provide depth there.
Pulisic could be Messi and it wouldn't matter if the rest of the team isn't up to snuff. Gold Cup is the last chance to see tryouts in a tournament environment. What are we going to do if Pulisic is injured in 2018 or gets a red card, etc. ? Pulisic is the answer to what we were missing in Gold Cup 2015 and the playoff. Zardes, Zusi, Jones, and Bedoya proved they were not. So what do we do about that? Maybe we should ask Arena
ref bolded maybe the way to solve our midfield problems is to p;lay 3cb's and use a different type of midfielder. In a 343 (3cb's is the issue) -----x-------x------x -x-----x--------x-----x -----x------x------x where the forwards are also creative (Morris, Agudelo, Pulisic, for instance) and you don't want them to play too wide because it may strand them or make our strongest assets defendable, the wb's provide the width which they can do with more freedom because the cb behind them can slide over and the 2nd and 3rd cb's can cover the box. There is no dedicated 6 as in a 4123 but we don't have a real good one anyway so the 3rd cb helps in providing that role as well. The way to make Pulisic effective is to put him in between the role of cam where he gets swamped and the role of width provider at right wing forward where he could be double teamed far from goal. Because there is a 3rd cb helping where Yedlin would be, Yedlin can burst forward to provide the width or cut in with pulisic dragging defenders wide to make room for Agudelo and Morris who are both quick enough to play against strong WC defenders. Arriola could be called in and tried as a wingback in the Gold Cup so we prepare back up, while Yedlin stays with his club to get a starting role in EPL after promotion. We could play Nguyen or Finlay or Feilhaber at rf as a stand in for Pulisic. Ream could play wb on the left to get used to Agudelo and Morris. With Fab having muscle problems we really need to think about an alternative. (Morrow?). With no dedicated 10 in mid, the two cm's must be able to pass and certainly 2 of the 3 cb's should pass well. Dax and Delgado would be 2 good passers. Altho we have good passers in our cb pool, the dull MLS managers seldom exploit these advantages. Hedges is a actually a really good passer but you would hardly know it from watching his games. Parker might be a good passer too but when does Vancouver ever use him that way. One is left scratching head. I wonder how Miazga is doing in that department.
At the start of his Vitesse adventure he was praised for his defensive work, but critisized for his inability to pass. I then wrote in the Miazga thread, if you cannot pass as a defender in the Dutch league you're screwed. I also wrote, it isnot something you cannot learn, so if he puts his efforts in he must be able to become a good passer. At first he wasnot used by Vitesse, but he was given special attention to the, for Dutch eyes, weak points in his play. So when he got the chance to play due to an injured team mate, he profited from his efforts and the attention of the staff, because he now was solid in defending, but also not shy anymore to pass the ball forward instead of safely to a co defender. So the one thing that could keep him out, not contributing to the attack as Dutch defenders tend to do, he addressed successfully.